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Midsummer Moon

Master of many guitar styles, Grammie Award Winning acoustic guitarist Petteway features Celtic and original music. Special guests include Highland piper Eric Rigler on the uilleann pipes who played all the pipe tracks on the soundtrack for TITANTIC

Genre: World: Celtic

Release Date: 2006

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ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

MIDSUMMER MOON AL PETTEWAY, Acoustic guitar

About the CD: Master of many guitar styles, Grammie Award Winning acoustic guitarist Petteway features Celtic and original music. Special guests include Highland piperr Eric Rigler on the uilleann pipes ( Eric performed all the pipe tracks on the soundtrack for TITANTIC and BRAVEHEART) Also, Bob Read on soprano saxophone, Keith Leaman on digeridoo, Amy White on mandolin and Ashiko drum, Debi Smith and Myron Bretholz on bodhran and Holden MacAleer on bassoon.

About AL: The style is smooth, sweet and completely his own - an artful synthesis of Celtic/British ideas and tunings with American themes and drive. Winner of over two dozen Wammie Awards including the prestigious Grammy Award; and also "Artist of the Year" and "Musician of the Year,"from the Washington Area Music Association. Al's flawless performances and signature guitar tone have become a legend. And there's more here than great technique! Al Petteway is an Grammy Award winning finger-style guitarist and composer. Also ,Al is winner of over two dozen WAMMIE awards (Washington Area Music Assoc.) including "Musician of the Year," his solo albums are Whispering Stones (MM206) and The Waters and the Wild (MM205). He has received a coveted Maryland State Arts Council Individual Award for Musical Composition for his original works. Al's work shows a brilliant convergence of many styles: mainly Celtic, there are also hints of progressive bluegrass, rock, blues, jazz and classical idioms. Must be heard to be believed!

Total time 54:14 All selections written by Al Petteway except where noted

FROM THE LINER NOTES:

1 THE RED HAIRED BOY (Traditional Irish, arranged by Amy White& Al Petteway)(DGDGBD) Myron Bretholz-bodhran. This arrangement began as a front porch mandolin duet. When I translated my part to guitar, I placed it high up on the neck to retain that mandolin like quality. I also worked with an open tuning so I could play the melody across the strings and let each note ring somewhat like a harp.

3 SOLITUDE A new arrangement of a tune I recorded for an earlier album, Dryad Dance, now out of print.

4 SONGLINE TO SKYE (CGCGCC) Creation myths of Australia's aborigines tell of beings who wandered over the continent in the "Dreamtime," singing the world into existence. The footprints they left behind are called "Dreaming Tracks" or "Songlines." During "Walkabouts," aboriginal men followed these paths using song as both a map and a direction finder. If a man strayed from his Songline, he could be killed for trespassing, but as long as he stuck to the track, he would find people who shared his dreaming and were his spiritual brothers.

5 WINTERTIDE (DADGAD) I finished this piece moments before walking onstage at the Wintertide Coffeehouse during Christine Lavin's singer/songwriter retreat on Martha's Vineyard.

6 WILD MOUNTAIN THYME (Traditional Scottish) I first heard this song performed by The Byrds in the late 1960's. Their version had the biggest influence on my arrangement. Eric and I played this selection "live" in the studio with no overdubs.

7 PHOOKA (Petteway/White) Phooka is a type of mischievous fairy -- sometimes a horse, sometimes a cat -- that can change shapes at will. This tune is dedicated to a Phooka in cat form who shared our home for a while. We still hear his claws race across the floor from time to time.

8 CHASING THE MOON (DADGAD) This title suggests many things. I like to imagine traveling at night during a full moon.

11 THE BEAUTY SPOT (Traditional Irish)(DADGAD) Although the didgeridoo and the uilleann pipes come from different parts of the world, each has a drone effect that relates them in some basic and primitive way. I wanted to put them together. First, Keith recorded an original didgeridoo composition with vocals, growls and shrieks. Then Eric added two layers of improvisation on the pipes, leading into the Irish reel at the end.

12 NEW MOON (DADGAD) (White/Petteway) This title was inspired by a night on Swans Island, Maine, watching falling stars during a new moon.

Uilleann pipes are played by pumping bellows with the arms as opposed to blowing air into a bag with the mouth. Their drone notes can be changed to accompany the "chanter" melody, unlike Highland pipes.

On this album Keith plays the Didgeridoos, a traditional Australian instrument made from eucalyptus branches that have been hollowed out by termites. He also plays Dreamtime pipes, a North American version of the didgeridoo made from the dried stalk of a cactus. The instruments are played by buzzing the lips and shaping the throat to create vocal effects and sound combinations from ear splitting shrieks to growls, murmurs and groans.

Produced by Al Petteway and Amy White Engineered by Jim RobesonMastered by David Glasser, Airshow, Inc. Springfield, Va. Recorded at Bias Recording Studios, Springfield, Va. Back cover photo by David VennellGuitars by Larry Sifel and TakamineBooklet design by Max Sadtler of Maximum Graphics, Washington, D.C. Cover Photo: A midsummer moon rises above white chalk cliffs that tower over The English Channel near the borough of Eastbourne in East Sussex, England by Sam Abell c. National Geographic Society

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